The Hollies'
Epic Anthology offers the best of their late-'60s to mid-'70s output for the label, ranging from the soaring "Carrie Anne" to the swaggering "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)" to "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" and all points in between. The collection reaffirms the Hollies' gifts as synthesists; "Dear Eloise" distills the trippier, cheerier moments of
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band into three minutes of bubblegum vaudeville pop; the group's "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" turns the raw romanticism of
Springsteen's original into the kind of lushly harmonized soft rock that dominated the airwaves in the early '70s. The group's breezy '60s songs are still their most enduring, especially the brilliant "King Midas in Reverse" (which was used unforgettably in Steven Soderbergh's The Limey), but even less striking songs like "Jennifer Eccles" and "Everything Is Sunshine" have an endearing lightness and cheekiness that has aged well. While their '70s work isn't quite as strong, "The Air That I Breathe" is still an enduring single and "Long Dark Road" and "Indian Girl," at the very least, sound sincere.
Epic Anthology isn't the perfect
Hollies collection, as it's missing key singles from their time with Imperial, but it's still a good look at the second half of their career. ~ Heather Phares